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45th Congress, ) HOUSE OF EEPEESENTATIVES. j Eeport 
2d Session. S ( ^o. 714. 



IMPEOVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVBE. 



May 3, 1878.— Recommitted to the Committee on Levees and Improvement of the 
Mississippi River, and ordered to be printed. 



Mr. EoBERTSON, from the. Committee on Levees and Improvement of 
the Mississippi Eiver, submitted the following 

EEPOET: 

[To accompany bill H. R. 4318.] 

To appreciate the national importance of keeping in repair the great 
river highway between Saint Louis and the Gulf of Mexico, a compre- 
hensive review of the whole Mississippi Eiver system seems necessary. 
The many navigable tributaries and subtributaries which flow from the 
region of the Lakes in the North, the Alleghanies in the East, and the 
Eocky Mountains in the West, converge and unite in one grand trunk- 
line known as the Lower Mississippi. Many States and Territories have 
a business interest in this system, and, while sharing its benefits, should 
also share the damages and cost of repairs. Your committee therefore 
consider the questions of river-improvement and alluvial lands as inti- 
mately and inseparably connected. To treat of one question to the ex- 
clusion of the other, and go to an extreme on either side, would be to 
ignore the fact that business is conservative, made up of checks and 
balances, facts and figures, and not radical theories. 

There are, in print, many official reports of surveys and other author- 
ities on the Mississippi and its various tributaries, but these contain 
detached information, and no one is sufficiently general and comprehen- 
sive to embrace the whole river-system. The magnitude and national 
importance of the system are too little understood by the general pub- 
lic. To supply that information we have made use of a map and man- 
uscript prepared by Alexander D.Anderson, giving a concise descriptive 
and statistical review of this great natural and national highway of 
commerce. 

HISTORICAL NOTES. 

In the early days of European discovery and rivalries, in the Missis- 
sippi Valley, its comprehensive river-system played a prominent part on 
the stage of public affairs. The discovery of the river, in 1541, by the 
Spaniards under De Soto, was, about a century later, followed by explo- 
rations by the French, under the lead of Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle, 
who entered the valley from the north. La Salle, during the years 
1679-1683, explored the river throughout its whole length, took posses- 
sion of the great valley in the name of France, and called it Louisiana 
in honor of his King, Louis XIV. Then resulted grand schemes for de- 
veloping the resources of the valley, which a French writer described 
as " the regions watered by the Mississippi, immense unknown virgin 
solitudes, which the imagination filled with riches." One Crozat, in 



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2 IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

1712, secured from the King a charter, giving him almost imperial con- 
trol of the commerce of the whole Mississippi Valley. There was, at 
that date, no European rival to dispute French domination, for the 
English of New England and the other Atlantic colonies had not ex- 
tended their settlements westward across the AUeghanies, and the 
Spanish in the Southwest, or New Spain, had not pushed their conquests 
farther north than New Mexico. Crozat's trading privileges covered an 
area many times larger than all France, and as fertile as any on the face 
of the earth. But he was unequal to the opportunity, and, failing in 
his eiforts, soon surrendered the charter. John Law, a Scotchman, at 
first a gambler, and subsequently a bold, visionary, but brilliant finan- 
cier, succeeded Crozat in the privileges of this grand scheme, and secured 
from the successor of Louis XIY a monopoly of the trade and develop- 
ment of the French possessions in the valley. In order to carry into effect 
his wild enterprise he organized a colossal stock company, called " The 
Western Company," but more generally known in history as " The Mis- 
sissippi Bubble." According to the historian, Monette, " it was vested 
with the exclusive privilege of the entire commerce of Louisiana and 
New France, and with authority to enforce its rights. Tt was authorized 
to monopolize the trade of all the colonies in the provinces, and of all 
the Indian tribes within the limits of that extensive region, even to the 
remotest source, of every stream tributary in any wise to the Missis- 
sippi." So skillful and daring were his manipulations that he bewitched 
the French people with the fascination of stock-gambling. But the 
bubble soon burst, and its explosion upset the fluances of the whole 
kingdom. 

The French made little progress in the settlement and development 
of the great valley, and in 1762 and 1763, after a supremacy ot nearly 
a hundred years, were crowded out by the English from the East, and 
the Spanish from the Southwest, the Mississippi River forming the divid- 
ing line between the conquests of those two nations. 

The Spanish officials, for the purpose of promoting colonization, and 
to aid in establishing trading-posts on the Mississippi, Missouri, Arkan- 
sas, Red, and other rivers, in the western half of the valley, granted to 
certain individuals, pioneers and settlers, immense tracts of land. They 
accomplished even less than the French in peopling the valley ; but 
whatever progress was made under the successive supremacies of the 
French, Spanish, and British, the Mississippi and its navigable tribu- 
taries furnished the only highways of communication and commerce. 

The United States, as a result of the Revolutionary war, dispossessed 
the British of the eastern half of the valley (except that portion east of 
the Mississippi and below the 31st degree of north latitude to Bayou 
Manchac, which remained in undisputed possession of Spain until 1810, 
when the people of that territory now known as the Florida parishes of 
Louisiana threw off the Spanish yoke, captured its forts at Baton Rouge 
and other points of military occupation, and declared and maintained 
their independence until Governor Claiborne dispersed the legislature 
and government of the people, and the United States Government ex- 
tended its authir.ty over the territory, bat which Spain did not cede 
to the United States until 1819), and in 1803, by the treaty of Paris, 
purchased the western half from France, which she, three years before, 
had reacquired from Spain. Then began a thorough development of the 
valley, and the thrifty American civilization made good use of the river 
highway. It became one of the most important channels of commerce in 
the world ; but its prestige was soon eclipsed by the advance of railways, 



I 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 3 

and for years past the natural highway has been less used than the arti- 
ficial ones. 
.-; At the present time, however, this river-system is once more coming 
6 into great prominence, both in a national and international sense. One 
^ scheme for its improvement contemplates an outlay of $45,000,000 in 
-4- the construction of levees. Another proposes its improvement on the 
^ jetty plan with an outlay of $50,000,000. Still others aim at the removal 
"J of sand-bars, snags, shoals, and overcoming the obstructions caused by 
Vo rapids. Direct shipments of grain are proposed from the center of the 
c- valley to Europe. The river is also considered an important factor in 
^ the development of direct and increased trade with Cuba, Brazil, Mex- 
ico, and other Spanish-American nations. To facilitate these commend- 
able schemes, it is proposed to improve and deepen the channel of the 
Lower Mississippi, which we have termed the grand trunk-line of the 
"whole system, so that its waters may float ocean-steamers and make 
continuous the navigation of the great interior of the United States 
with the Gulf and the Ocean. In brief, the new era of peace, material 
development, revival of industries, and extension of trade, which is 
succeeding several years of political strife and business depression, 
finds in the Mississippi River system a fine field for operations. The 
problem of cheap transportation, so important to the welfare of the pro- 
ducing classes, looks to the river and its many navigable tributaries for 
solution. Considering the national importance of that question at the 
present time, it is safe to assert that the river-system has reached a 
i:)oint in its history where it will soon regain its lost prestige. 



DESCRIPTIVE NOTES. 

The Mississippi and its navigable tributaries intersect and supply 
with cheap transportation nearly every portion of the vast agricultural 
region extending from the Lakes to the Gulf and the Alleghany to the 
Rocky Mountains, an area of about 2,000,000 square miles ; in other 
■words, about two-thirds of the area of the whole United States. Strictly 
speaking, the Mississippi River basin contains but 1,257,545 square 
miles. That total is, according to Walker's Statistical Atlas of the 
United States, composed of the following minor basins or subdivisions, 
viz : 

Square miles. 

Lower Mississippi 65, 646 

Upper Mississippi 179,635 

Missouri 527,690 

Arkansas 184,742 

Ohio 207,111 

Red 92,721 

But the region drained, and, in a business way, benefited by the Mis- 
sissippi River system, is more extensive than the mere basins, and it is 
fairer to use the first mentioned area (which is that given by Foster, in 
his excellent work on the valley) as the proper measure of territory for 
the purposes of this review. 

The following table shows the number of miles which the river, and 
each one of its tributaries, is navigable from its mouth to the place desig- 
nated on the accompanying map, as the head of navigation : 



Missouri 3,127 

Mississippi 2, 166 

Ohio 1,021 

Red 820 

Tennessee 759 

Arkansas 668 



Cumberland . 

White 

Washita 

Yellowstone 

Wabash , 

Alleghany... 



653 
460 
445 
438 
369 
325 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER. 



Chippewa 90 

Iowa 80 

Saint Francis 80 

Saint Croix 65 

Rook 64 

Kentucky 60 

Black (La.) 54 

Big Horn 50 

Clinch 50 



Total 14,086 



Minnesota 295 

Illinois 269 

Yazoo 240 

Osage 237 

Sunflower 207 

Tallahatchie 200 

Green 200 

Wisconsin 160 

Black (Ark.) 136 

Monongahela 110 

Kanawha 94 

Muskingum 94 

It will be observed that several of the rivers placed on the map are 
not navigable. Some of them can easily be made so, and when the 
country becomes more densely populated,'^doubtless will be suitably im- 
proved. The Mississippi Eiver, for instance, can, by use of locks, be 
made navigable to Leech Lake, about six hundred miles above the pres- 
ent head of navigation. In the same way the navigation of the Missouri, 
Yellowstone, Eed, and other tributaries may be extended. It will also 
be observed that the mileage, as given in" the above table, is to the 
heads of navigation. In most instances that means continuous naviga- 
tion, but not always so. For instance the navigation of the Mississippi 
is broken at Saint Anthony's Falls, and then is resumed and extends to 
Sauk Eapids. In the Tennessee Eiver there is an interruption at Muscle 
Shoals, in the State of Alabama, and another below Chattanooga. In 
the Eed Eiver there is also an interruption of continuous navigation. 
But these breaks in continuous navigation exist in only a few of the 
above list of tributaries, and can, with little expense, be overcome 
whenever Congress furnishes the necessary legislation. 

Did time permit, it would be interesting to give descriptive notes on 
each of the thirty-three navigable rivers of the Mississippi system, stat- 
ing the general features, and characteristics of each, the nature of the 
interruptions to continuous navigation, the kind of boats used, or capable 
of being used, on each, the number of miles of navigation, which, by 
improvements and repairs, might be added to each river, &c. Such 
a review is much needed in the interest of commerce, and intelligent and 
adequate legislation, and it is to be regretted that no provision has been 
made for its preparation. 

A noticeable feature of the system, as may be seen on the map, is that 
on the east and west it nearly connects with rivers flowing into the 
Atlantic and Pacific. The James Eiver in Virginia so nearly unites 
with the Kanawha, which is a tributary of the Ohio, that ever since the 
days of Washington, who originated and first advocated the plan, it has 
been proposed to connect, in this manner, the waters of the Atlantic 
with those of the Mississippi Valley. At the present time there is a 
bill pending before Congress asking that a commission of engineers be 
appointed " whose duty it shall be to proceed, at once, to make a survey 
of, and consider and mature plans for the construction of a navigable 
canal from the Upper Columbia Eiver to the Upper Missouri Eiver." 
A continuous water-line from New York City to the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi, by way of Hudson Eiver, the Erie Canal, and the great lakes, 
has been much discussed, and, in 1874, its construction was strongly 
recommended by a select committee of the United States Senate. 

Thus it is proposed, by supplementing the Mississippi system on the 
north, east, and west, to extend the water highways of commerce across 
the Continent, not only from the Lakes to the Gulf, but from Ocean to 
Ocean. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



A NATIONAL HIGHWAY. 

The navigable portions of this vast river-system either intersect or 
border eighteen States and two Territories. Each one of these States 
and Territories has an extensive business interest in the Lower Missis- 
sippi, or trunk-line, as well as the particular portions of the river high- 
way which touch its own territory. The mileage of the navigable por- 
tions of the system which cross or border each State is nearly as follows : 



Minnesota . 
Wisconsin , 

Ohio 

Nebraska.. 



660 

560 

556 

400 

Pennsylvania. 380 

Texas 300 

Dakota 285 

Alabama 250 

Kansas 190 

West Virginia 104 



Arkansas 1, 826 

Missonri 1,504 

Louisiana 1, 314 

Montana 1,311 

Illinois 1,277 

Tennessee 1,220 

Mississippi 1, 207 

Kentucky 1, 187 

Iowa 845 

Indiana 840 

An estimate of the political power of these States and Territories 
shows how national are the interests attaching to the river. Of the 
three hundred and oneEepresentatives of the people in the present Con- 
gress, the eighteen States and two Territories sent one hundred and 
seventy-one. This representation is based on population, and. accord- 
ing to the last census, those States and Territories had a population of 
22,215,022, against 16,343,349 in the rest of the United States. 

Again, a comparison of some of the leading products of those eighteen 
States with the products of the whole United States illustrates very 
clearly the national character of this comprehensive highway. Accord- 
ing to the recent annual report of the United States Commissioner of 
Agriculture, they, in 187G, produced 1,123,106,000 bushels of Indian corn 
of the total 1,283,827,500 bushels produced in the whole Union ; in other 
words, over 87 per cent, of the whole national crop. 

The wheat product of the same eighteen States was 200,899,000 bushels 
against the total 289,356,500 bushels of the whole United States, or 
sixty-nine per cent. They produced seventy-two per cent, of the total 
rye product of the United States. During the same year they furnished 
seventy per cent, or $19,811,650 of the total $28,282,968 worth of 
tobacco produced in the United States. Of the total 4,438,000 bales of 
cotton grown in the whole United States in 1876, they produced seventy- 
four per cent., or 3,318,000 bales. As the statistics of pork packing are 
usually given by cities instead of States, we will take, for a further 
comparison, the value of live hogs in 1876. According to the same au- 
thority, the Commissioner of Agriculture, the value of the hogs of the 
eighteen States was estimated to be $137,154,406, and those of the whole 
Union, $171,077,196, or seventy-one per cent. 

The chief coal-lields of the United States, those of Pennsylvania, 
Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri, are in close proximity to the navi- 
gable waters of the Mississippi or its tributaries. The extensive iron 
deposits of Tennessee, Western Pennsylvania, and Missouri, also adjoin 
this national highway. It furnishes water communication with the 
ocean for the commerce and freights of such cities as Pittsburg, Cin- 
cinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Saint Paul, Keokuk, Omaha, 
Little Eock, Shreveport, Jefferson (Tex.), Saint Louis, New Orleans, and 
mauy others scattered over different portions of the great interior of 
the United States. 

In fact, the river-system itself is national, for it is a highway controlled 
by the United States, and is subject to the laws of the general gov^n- 



6 IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

ment instead of the laws of the various States through which it passes. 
The law as declared in 1870, by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in the case of "The Daniel Ball" (10 Wallace, 557), is as follows : 

Those rivers must be regarded as public navigable rivers in law which are navi- 
gable in fact. And they are navigable in fact when they are used, or are susseptible 
of being used, in their ordinary condition, as highways for commerce over which trade 
and travel are, or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on 
water. And they constitute navigable waters of the United States, within the mean- 
ing of the acts of Congress, in contradistinction from the navigable waters of the 
States, when they form in their ordinary condition, by themselves, or by uniting with 
other waters, a continued highway over which commerce is, or may be, carried on 
with other States, or foreign countries, in the customary modes in which such com- 
merce is conducted by water. 

Here then we find a highway which is controlled by the people in- 
stead of private corporations. No monopoly of transportation, or exor- 
bitant charges attach to the river-system, but it is a public way open 
to free and unrestrained competition. It is in nature, fact, and law, a 
national institution. 

ITS INTERNATIOAL FEATURES. 

A glance at the map shows how the various branches of this inland 
highway converge, meet, and finally terminate at the Gulf, directly oppo- 
site Brazil, the Spanish-American nations of South America, Mexico, 
and the West Indies. No intention of nature is more clearly indicated 
than that the commerce of the great valle.y should find a direct and 
continuous interchange with that of neighboring nations at the South. 
Bat statistics show that the wise plans of nature have, in this respect, 
been almost totally disregarded. According to a report on the resources 
and commerce of Brazil, submitted at our Centennial Exhibition, her 
average annual purchases in the European market were 85^^^ per cent, 
of her total imports, while her annual average purchases from the 
United States were only 4^^^ per cent. 

Taking the statistics of the foreign commerce of Mexico for the year 
ending June 30, 1873, which is, probably, a fair illustration of the gen- 
eral direction of that trade, we find that Mexico imported to the extent 
of $18,897,611 in commodities from distant Europe, and only 17,420,419 
from the United States. Taking the single item of cotton-stuffs im- 
ported that same year, Mexico bought $10,531,970 worth from Europe, 
and only $369,438 worth from the United States. Yet her chief harbor, 
Vera Cruz, is but a very short distance across the Gulf from the mouth 
of the Mississippi and the best cotton- producing States of the world. 
The grain products of the valley have, for years past, been sent over- 
land for foreign shipment, while the waters of the river, which pene- 
trates all portions of the grain-producing regions, form an unbroken 
channel to the ocean. 

The people of the valley are beginning to appreciate the fact that it 
is a costly luxury to ignore the plans of nature, and now, more than 
ever before, they are considering the international features of the river 
highway. The recent direct shipments of grain from the mouth ol the 
Mississippi to foreign markets have jiroved so successful, and so bene- 
ficial to the producers of the valley, that it is proposed to improve the 
river so as to permit ocean-steamers to ascend to the very center of this 
great river-system. This result could be accomplished by a channel of 
twenty feet in depth from Saint Louis to the Gulf. One plan of im- 
provement of the Lower Mississippi contemplates such a depth of navi- 
gation. But it is not our purpose to advocate any particular theory of 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 7 

improvemeat. Suffice it to say that the river should be impressed into 
the service of commerce iu every way possible, and to its utmost capac- 
ity whether for local, national, or international exchanges. 

An inevitable result of an adequate development and use of this 
river highway, and enlarged trade with Spanish-American countries 
adjoining the Gulf, will be the construction of the proposed interoceanic 
canal across Central America or Southern Mexico. That would makecon- 
tinuous and very direct water communication between the valley and 
Japan, China, and India. The Mississippi Valley is destined at no dis- 
tant day to have its share of the much coveted and enriching Oriental 
trade. 

AN ECONOMICAL HIGHWAY. 

This river system, considered as a whole, extends from north to south, 
from one climate to another. Nature has provided that different cli- 
mates shall furuish different products, and it is but in accordance with 
those designs and sound principles of political economy that the chief 
commercial exchanges of the United States should be iu the same direc- 
tion. In America, at least, those principles of trade have been disre- 
garded, and the exchanges have been too much on parallels of latitude. 
But, regardless of what has been the practice, it is a fact which cannot 
be gainsaid, that the most important trade for the United States to 
secure is that of the nations lying south of us, and within easy reach of 
the Mississippi Valley. Of the valley itself it may be said that the 
northern and southern portions are, in climate, resources, and products, 
the supplement of each other. Of the valley, and the Spanish American 
nations, it may be said that oue is, in climate, products, resources, 
supply, and demand, the complement of the other. The Mississippi 
River furnishes facilities for exchanges on that principle, and is, there- 
fore, economically correct. True public economy requires that such laws 
of nature and trade be not disregarded. 

Again, this highway is in accordance with the rule of political 
economy as well as common sense, which is that channels of commerce 
be located in regions which are sufficiently fertile and settled to furnish 
products for transportation. The most productive portions of the 
United States are the rich valleys extending up and down the Missis- 
sippi and its many tributaries. The highway was located where most 
needed, and where it can perform the greatest service iu the shape of 
transportation. 

Again, it is in accordance with the strictest principles of political 
economy in that it was constructed without expense. The single State 
of New York had, up to the close of 1861), expended $64,710,832 in the 
construction, improvement, and enlargement of her 1,308 miles of canals. 
It will be observed that the mileage of these canals which cost such 
an enormous sum is not quite one-tenth the mileage of the Mississippi 
Elver system which cost nothing. 

Still again, sound public economy requires that the cost of transpor- 
tation be not so great as to check production. The question of cheap 
transportation has during the past few years been very generally dis- 
cussed, and a select committee of the United States Senate in 1874 
prepared an elaborate report on that subject. In its summary of con- 
clusions and recommendations is the following : 

The above facts and conclusions, together with the remarkable physical adaptation 
of our country for cheap and ample water communications, point unerringly to the 
improvement of our great natural waterways, and their connection by canals or by 
short freight railway portages, under control of the government, as the obvious and 
certain solution of the problem of c/ieaj^ transportation 



5 IMPEOVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVEE. 

The following, from the Cincinnati Commercial, of recent date, illus- 
trates the force of that conclusion : 

The tow-boat Josh Williams is on her way to New Orleans with a tow of thirty-two 
barges, containing six hundred thousand lushels {seventy-six pounds to the bushel) of coal, 
exclusive of her own fuel, being the largest tow ever taken to New Orleans, or any- 
where else in the world. 

Her freight-bill, at three cents per bushel, amounts to eighteen thousand dollars. 

It would take eighteen hundred cars, of three hundred and thirty-three bushels to the 
car (which is an overload for a car), to transport this amount of coal. 

At ten dollars per ton, or one hundred dollars per car, which would be a fair price 
for the distance by rail, the freight-bill would amount to one hundred and eighty thou- 
sand dollars, or one hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars more by rail than by river. 

The tow will be taken from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in fourteen or fifteen days. 

It would require one hundred trains of eighteen cars to the train to transport this one 
tow of six hundred thousand bushels of coal, and even if it made the usual speed of 
fast freight-lines, it would take one whole summer to put it through by rail. 

This statement shows the xvonderful superiorty of the river over rail facilities. 

The following statistics from the New Orleans market-reports show 
the increased receipt of some of the articles of produce from the interior, 
largely due to improvement at the mouth of the Mississippi Eiver. 

In other words, the producers desiring cheap transportation will 
always patronize the river highway when it is in repair. 

From September 1, 1877 to April 21, 1878— 

Increase. 

Corn, this year, bushels . 3, 679, 319 

Corn, last year, bushels 1, 173,381 

2, 505, 938 

Wheat, this year, bushels 653,551 

Wheat, last year, bushels 93, 725 

559, 826 

Cotton-seed, this year, sacks 1,724,012 

Cotton-seed, last year, sacks 1,058,716 

665, 296 

Cotton, this year, bales 1,602, 121 

Cotton, last year, bales 1,323,819 

278, 3C2 

A NEGLECTED HIGHWAY. 

With the great natural advantages possessed by the river-highway, 
one would naturally suppose it would be the main dependence for the 
bulky freights of an agricultural valley. But it is the channel of trade 
least in use. According to the recent report of the United States Bureau 
of Statistics on internal commerce, the commerce of Saint Louis, 
the central city of the great Mississippi Valley, was, during the year 
1875, transported chiefly by rail, 78 per cent, going by rail, and only 22 
per cent, by river. The same report asserts that " at first the railroads 
of the Western States were regarded as being merely tributary to the 
water-lines." But the reverse is now true, for since railways have been 
so generally extended over the valley, from 1850 to the present time, 
they have gradually gained in relative importance and prestige, until the 
river has become tributary to the railways. Until recently the mouth 
of this whole system of water-ways, which connects over fourteen thou- 
sand miles of inland navigation with the Gulf and the Ocean, has been 
permitted to remain filled with bars and deposits, to the great damage 
of commerce. Along the trunk-line, or Lower Mississippi, the levees, or 
fences of the river, constructed, to protect adjoining fields from overflow, 
and damage, have become neglected and broken down. The amount of 
this damage to property, and loss to the sum total of national wealth, is 
truly astonishing. In estimating the damage one must bear in mind 
that the alluvial lands along the Lower Mississippi, the Eed, and Ar- 



IMPROVEMENT OF 'J HE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 9 

kansas Elvers, are as fertile as auy upon the face of tlie eartb, and, for tlie 
purpose of cotton, sugar, and rice growing, doubtless superior to any. 
The extent of territory subject to overflow was, in 1874, estimated by 
Mr. Morey, in his report to the House of Eepresentatives, to be 41, 193 
square miles. This is an area as great as the combined areas of New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Khode Island, and 
New Jersey, and of course many times more productive. As regards the 
value of that area, reduced to acres, we quote as follows from Mr. 
Morey's carefully-prepared estimate : 

Assuming the 26,363,520 square acres of land to have been worth, unreclaimed, $1.25 
per acre, on the fronts of streams of the larger class, to an average depth of one mile 
on each side, amounting to about 8,000 square miles— equal .5,120,000 acres — the whole 
would be worth, at this rate, about $6,400,000. Computing the rest as not salable, 
but worth ten cents i)er acre — say $2,124,3.52; add to this the salable land, and we 
have an aggregate value of $8,524,352 as the total value of the Mississippi Delta, with- 
out levees. 

What was their value at the beginning of the war, with the ineffective levee system 
then extending sometliing like one thousand miles in Louisiana, and at least five hun- 
dred miles in the other States? The lands reclaimed were worth, on an average, $30 
per acre, and the 5,120,000 acres became worth $153,600,000, and the remaining 21,243,352 
acres were worth $10 per acre, or $212,443,520, and the real value of the whole area 
worth $366,043,520. 

Here, then, was an addition to the national wealth of over $357,000,000 
as a result of the reclamation of the alluvial lauds. It is an amount 
greater than the value, as given in the last Census, of all the farming 
lands of the great and fertile State of Kentucky. But the wealth gained 
by fencing in the river highway has, since the beginning of the war, been 
almost entirely lost. According to the able report of the Levee Com- 
mittee, made to the House of Representatives by Mr. Ellis, in 187C, 
''millions of acres have been sold for taxes; others, after advertise- 
ment, have failed to bring anything whatever, and it is safe to say that 
the depreciation in the last sixteen years has reduced the value to less 
than $100,000,000." Here, then, is a damage of $266,000,000 to prop- 
erty, caused by failure to keep a public highway in repair — a highway 
so public that it furnishes transportation to eighteen States, which, 
as we have already stated, supply, on au average, about 75 per cent, of 
the staple products of the whole country-. 

The damage not only consists of devastation to adjoining fields, caused 
by overflow, but to the levees themselves, which adjoining States and 
proprietors have constructed at great expense. On this subject Professor 
Forshey, a distinguished civil engineer of many years' experience and 
observation on the Mississippi, a very reliable authority, made before 
the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1872 the follow- 
ing assertion, viz : 

The steamers that transport this commerce send their resistless waves against banks 
and levees, lashing and abrading them almost without cessation. Our lower river hardly 
ever rests. One set of waves succeeds another ; and each finds its rest in the equiva- 
lent of its forces transferred to the banks and channel of the river. These lashings 
and abradings, independent of the other causes, render the task of levee construction 
more and more oppressive j'early, uutil it has become intolerable. 

At the convention which met at Saint Paul, in the fall of 1877, to con- 
sider the river interests, he illustrated that assertion by a few facts and 
figures in regard to the damage to levees along Kempe's plantation, on 
the Mississippi, and about one hundred miles above the mouth of Red 
River. He cited tbat case as a fair illustration of the general damage 
to levees and alluvial lands caused by the commerce of the eighteen 
States and two Territories which make free use of this highway. He 
said : 

In 1840 I made a survey of the whole tract of more than 1,200 acres, half in culti- 
vation. The front was protected by a levee only four feet high. Its back line, forty 

H. Rep. 714 2 



10 IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER. 

arpens from the front, nearly one and a half miles, had the original Spanish land marks 
of 1802. The front had remained thirty-eight years without material change. The cur- 
rents had done their worst upon them and still the depth of forty arpens was there. In 
1872-73 I located and built a levee, on the front of the same tract, and this was the 
fourth parallel levee that had been built there since my survey. Its length was four 
miles, 18 feet its average height (maximum, 22| feet), and with a base of 130 feet. 
Its contents were 640,000 cubic yards, and it cost the State of Louisiana $384,000. In 
locating the line of the levee I destroyed the back, and marks at forty arpens, 1^ miles 
from the river front. This whole front had caved none in the thirty-eight years, from 
the original survey until 1840 ; and in the thirty-two years of commercial history the 
abrasions has carved away nearly the whole plantation, and eaten down three levees, 
costing the State and the proprietors more than $500,000. 

THE QUESTION OF REPAIRS. 

In nearly every portion of this country, and in fact of the civilized 
world, there is some provision of law in regard to the repairs of public 
roads. The county, town, city, and private corporation which is bene- 
fited by a highway, invariably finds some way to keep it in repair. As 
the construction of these roads costs large sums of money, it is considered 
economical, as well as necessary, to take care of them. In brief, the 
statute law of every State compels the counties, or towns, to keep their 
roads in good repair, and the failure to do so subjects them to liability 
for damages caused by the neglect. 

There is no good reason why the United States should not take equal 
care of the great inter-State highways of commerce which she controls by 
legislation. As regards inter-State commerce, communication, and ex- 
changes between different sections of the nation, and between the inte- 
rior and the seaboard, the uses of railways are very similar to those of 
river highways. It is, therefore, fair to contrast these two systems of 
highways as regards the question of repairs and dauiages. 

The laws of the various States, particularly those which are the oldest 
and best settled, are very much alike in their requirements of railway 
corporations on the subject of damages, and fences to protect adjoining 
Ijroperty-holders from damage. To illustrate the spirit of the statute 
laws in this respect, we quote as follows from the laws of Connecticut: 

Every railroad company which has been incorporated since the first Wednesday of 
May, 1850, or which shall be hereafter incorporated, shall erect and maintain good and 
sufficient fences on both sides of its railroad throughout its whole extent, except at 
such places as, in the opinion of the railroad commissioners, the erection and mainte- 
nance of the same shall be inexpedient or unnecessary. 

The statutes of this State further provide for the construction , by the rail- 
way companies, of "suitable cattle-guards in the form of culverts or pits, at 
all i)laces where its railroad shall cross public highways or passways." 

In the construction of railways the companies are compelled to pay 
for the right of way, and to suitably compensate the land-owners whose 
property they cross for the damages caused. Such is also the spirit of 
the law in England. The general spirit of the law on this subject is 
concisely stated, by Bouvier, as follows : 

In England the laying out of highways is regulated by act of Parliament; in this 
country by general statutes, diff'ering in different States. In England the uniform 
practice is to provide a compensation to the owner of the land taken for highways. 
In the act authorizing the taking in the United State such a provision must be made 
or the act will be void, under the clause in the several State coustitutions that "pri- 
vate property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation." 

It is true that nature, instead of the United States, constructed the 
river highways. But is that a sufficient reason why the general govern- 
ment, which controls the navigable water-ways, should not protect the* 
adjoining property-holders from damage? Equity requires that the 
general public which uses and is benefited by this national highway 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 11 

should fence it iu by le%'ees, so as to protect the adjoining fields from 
overflow and ruin. Congress has already established several pre- 
cedents showing that it recognizes this general and universal spirit of 
the laws in regard to public highways and compensation for damages. 
They are as follows : 

The act of March 2, 1849, provides " that to aid the State of Louisiaua in constructing 
the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands therein, the 
whole of those swamp and overflowed lands which may be, or are, found unfit for culti- 
vation, shall be, and the same are hereby, granted to that State." 

The act of September 28, 1850, provides " that to enable the State of Arkansas to con- 
struct the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamp and overflowed lands 
therein, the whole of those swamp and overflowed lands made unfit thereby for cul- 
tivation, -which shall remain unsold at the passage of this act, shall be, and the same 
are hereby, granted to said State." Another section of this act extends its provisions 
and the grant of swamp lands to the other States of the valley and the Union. 

The act of September 30, 1850, provides " for the topographical and hydrographical sur- 
vey of the Delta of the Mississippi, with such investigations as may lead to determine 
the most j)racticable plan for securing it from inundation, and the best mode of so 
deepening the passes at the mouth of the river, as to allow ships of twenty feet draught 
to enter the same, fifty thousand dollars." 

The act of August 31, 1852, provides "for continuing the topographical aud hydro- 
graphical survey of the Delta of the Mississippi, with such investigations as may lead 
to determine the most practicable plan for securing it from inundatiou, fifty thousand 
dollars." 

The act of March 12, 1860, provides " that the provisions of the act of Congress enti- 
tled 'An act to enable the State of Arkansas and other States to reclaim ttie swaup 
lands within their limits,' approved September 28, 1850, be, aud the same are hereby, 
extended to the States of Minnesota and Oregon." 

The act of June 22, 1874, provides " that the President be, and he is hereby, author- 
ized and directed to assign three officers of the Corps of Army Engineers, United States 
Army, and to appoint two civil engineers, eminent in their profession, and who are 
acquainted with the alluvial basin of the Mississippi River," &c. * * * "It shall 
be the duty of said commission to make a full report to the President of the best sys- 
tem for the permanent reclamation and redemption of said alluvial basin from inunda- 
tion." 

The total number of acres selected for the several States, under the 
provisions of the above-mentioned acts, is 67,683,045. Of that quantity 
granted, Florida, Oregon, California, and Michigan, States which are 
not intersected by any portion of the Mississippi River system, received 
23,969,528 acres. Of the quantity received by the States interested in 
the Mississippi and its tributaries, the larger portion was within the 
alluvial districts dependent upon levees. 

Such are the precedents which Congress has established in regard to 
the subject of alluvial lands. They are sufficiently numerous to indicate 
an admission by the general government of an obligation to build 
levees or fences along its great highway of commerce, so as to protect 
adjoining fields from damage. 

The precedents on the subject of river-improvement are much more 
numerous. From the beginning of the government to the year 1878, 
there have been nearly two hundred different appropriations by Congress 
for improvements of the Mississippi and its various tributaries. The 
total amount of these appropriations for improving 14,086 miles of water- 
ways in the Mississippi system, and which are under control of the 
United States, is not so remarkable as the number of the appropriations. 
The amount is, in round numbers, only $18,500,000, a sum only one-fifth 
the amount of bonds issued (with interest added) by the United States 
in favor of the Pacific railroads. It is an amount less than one- third 
the sum spent by New York 'State alone on her canals. It is also less 
than half the sum appropriated by Congress for the improvement of 
rivers and harbors in other portions of the United States. 

A further comparison shows that the single State of New York has 



\ 



12 IMPROVEMENT OF THE MISSISSIPPI KIVEE. 

received from the general ofoverumeut for the improvements of its rivers 
and harbors the sum of $7,894,003, an amount considerably over one- 
third the appropriations for the whole Mississippi system, in which 
eighteen States and two Territories have a business interest. 

There is a wide difference in principle between the granting of gov- 
ernment aid in the construction of railways owned by private corpora- 
tions and simply keeping in repair river highways controlled by the 
United States, and which nature built for her without expense. If 
jirecedents show that the general government has pursued a very lib- 
eral policy in the first instance, it is certainly apparent that the policy 
should be liberal in regard to navigable rivers, the ways which furnish 
cheap and free transportation, and therefore the ways of greatest impor- 
tance to the producers and the people who pay the taxes. According to 
the United States Bureau of Statistics, the amount of public lands 
granted in aid of the construction of railways is, up to the present time, 
187,785,850 acres. The amount of bonds issued by the general govern- 
ment to Tacitic railways, with interest accumulated, was, at the begin- 
ning of last year, $91,637,928. The single State of New York has, as 
we have already shown, expended over sixty-four million dollars in the 
construction of artificial water-ways. The average cost per mile of those 
1,308 miles of canal was forty-nine thousand dollars. Suppose the gen- 
eral government had, at the same cost per mile, constructed the 14,086 
miles of water highways in the Mississippi River system, the total 
cost would be over six hundred and ninety million dollars. This river 
highway is infinitely superior to and more serviceable than any canal 
which can be constructed. Its value is just as great to the people as 
if built at public expense, and is as much entitled to repairs. Is it wise 
for the general government to neglect its most important highway of 
commerce simply because nature assumed the cost of the original con- 
struction '? 

CONCLUSION. 

The bill reported by your committee is a substitute for the various 
bills which have been referred to them for consideration. 

By resolution of the present session the jurisdiction of the committee 
has been extended so as to include questions relating to the improve- 
ment of the river, as well as questions relating to levees and alluvial 
lands. In the past these have been rival interests, notwithstanding 
nature made them interdependent. At present, however, all jiarties 
in interest admit that levees are necessary aids to the improvement of 
navigation. Your committee, therefore, in accordance with their new 
jurisdiction, and the fortunate adjustment of rival interests, report a 
bill combining those two very important questions. 

Without advocating any particular theories — leaving them for a com- 
mission to determine — they do, however, recommend a liberal and com- 
prehensive system of repairs to this great natural and national high- 
way of commerce, which is under the control of the government, and 
open to the free and unrestrained use of the people. 

As preliminary to such a system of internal improvements, they recom- 
mend a commission to examine and decide upon some adequate and 
comprehensive plan of improvement of the Lower Mississippi, from 
Saint Louis to the Gulf, which is the concentration and trunk-line of 
the whole Mississippi River system. The bill provides that the commis- 
sion shall take into consideration plans and estimates for the improve- 
ment of the navigation of the river as well as for the protection of the 
alluvial lands of tbe Mississippi delta from overflow. 

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